Tax Committee chairs share priorities

On Thursday, the House and Senate tax chairs joined the Chamber's Fiscal Policy Committee to share their priorities for the 2020 legislative session. Both Rep. Paul Marquart and Sen. Roger Chamberlain expressed a desire to fully conform with Section 179, helping small businesses and farmers throughout the state. 

And thank you to @rcchamberlain1 for sharing the Senate perspective on tax issues with our Fiscal Policy Committee! It was a great opportunity for our members to learn from both committee chairs. #mnleg pic.twitter.com/rxvtIBnM36

— MN Chamber of Commerce (@MN_Chamber) February 21, 2020

What is Section 179 conformity? 

In 2019, Minnesota conformed to numerous elements of federal law, but did not adopt many of the expensing provisions including Section 179. As a result, Minnesota only allows for a fraction of investments to be immediately expensed, thus putting local small businesses and farmers at a disadvantage. On top of that, Minnesota made some of the business tax changes retroactive, hitting many businesses and farmers with unexpected tax bills. The cumulative impact is extended debt and less money to invest in operations – at a time when Minnesota has a $1.3 billion budget surplus.

Section 179 conformity would:

• Help small businesses and farmers reinvest in Minnesota to help grow our economy.
• Fix retroactive tax increases.
• Improve Minnesota’s competitiveness as most states, including all of our neighbors, have conformed.
• Reduce tax compliance costs and complexity.
• Prevent Minnesota taxpayers from paying more in state taxes than they do on their federal income tax returns.

Get involved

Is your business being negatively impacted by Minnesota’s lack of Section 179 conformity? We’d love to hear from you! Contact Beth Kadoun, the Chamber’s Vice President, Tax and Fiscal Policy to share your story and help us pass full conformity this session.
 
As members of the Invest in Minnesota Coalition, we stand with small businesses and family farms who want nothing more than to invest in the future of their businesses and employees. The Invest in Minnesota Coalition consists of over 70 business and agriculture organizations aligning Minnesota’s income tax with the federal rules to encourage greater business investment in Minnesota.